Help with software raid 1 win 7

[squall1066]

hiya, firstly, I hate microsoft, But i am a gamer and cannot configure linux for my requirements, so please no smart comments lie "just go linux man!"

I would like some redundancy in my computer, I have alot of games and I like to configure them so they run nice.

But after alot of problems I started to think, Whats the point in any raid? Is a backup just (if not more) useful?

Sorry, I am ranting   My main problem is windows help ONLY tells you how to configure software raid 0/1 on two spare drives and a third OS drive.

I wanted 2 drives, Bootable and completely mirrored so if I get a drive failure, I can still operate as I was untill a new drive arrives.

Oh How very wrong I was! Fcuking (yes typo was intentional, I am not a swearer by nature) Bill gates!!

Firstly, Windows installs a boot partition of one drive to prevent software copying, So If the main drive goes down, I still have to fix the MBR with original CD, But I cant do that as there is not 100Mb free for the EFI partition after mirroring the rest of the drive there is only 99Mb?.

Secondly, If I had a 3 drive setup, 1=o/s and other two mirrored for games, and the OS drive went down, All the configuration of installed games has gone, The game folders are still on the raid drives but is not installed according to windows.

So I need some real help as to know what to do, What configuration do you guys suggest?

I have some few TB of games, I have lots of 2-3TB HDD sitting around, But I cant see a use for raid in my game situation, For any other use, Yes, I can see a huge use to keep files safe.

I'm still ranting aren't I, Oh I hate microsoft  


EDIT - Just thought, I have never worked with a hardware raid, Is this different? Would I still be able to boot in a HDD failure for raid 1?

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[jbrnt]

You should setup mirroring from the bios and from the boot rom configuration before you install windows. The the OS partition is also mirrored, will work with either of the two in event of failure.

[squall1066]

You should setup mirroring from the bios and from the boot rom configuration before you install windows. The the OS partition is also mirrored, will work with either of the two in event of failure.

Sweet, thanks for that, I will need a new mobo, Time for that x99 build I think.

Do you know what happens if mobo goes down and I change the board? Will it work when switching? do I have to get the same bios or something?

[jbrnt]

My desktop is a three year old HP. The bios supports Intel's soft raid. I enabled raid emulation from bios, installed windows and than the intel sata management tools. You will see the health status of your disks.

I haven't have a disk failure yet (touchwood), but I suspect data on both disks will be identical. If mobo fails, buy another mobo which supports intel's soft raid and should be good to go.

If it doesn't work, worst sensario is boot up with one of your disks and let it sync to a new one, keep the other as backup.

[Rannasha]

RAID-1 (and most other RAID-setups) are useless for consumer purposes. The goal of RAID is to provide redundancy without downtime, which is important for business environments with servers that should not go down from disk failure. In consumer environments this level of redundancy is hardly ever needed.

In addition, RAID-1 is a poor substitute for a backup since it offers 0 protection against data loss due to malware, software errors or user actions. It'd be a much better idea to pull one of the disks out, put it in an external disk enclosure and use it as an external backup disk that you connect periodically to create a backup.

[idecable]

In the Windows land, you can run software RAID but not on the boot device itself.

IF you want to get a full bootable RAID1 on your Windows box, you'll need to either get a PCIe RAID card, or get a motherboard that supports RAID from the BIOS itself.

And from there, when you install Windows, you'll be asked to provide the RAID drivers... and of course, you do set up your mirror RAID in it's BIOS before starting up the Install CD..

I prefer Linux software RAIDs over Windows ones, simply because the software stack is just beautiful and online rebuilds works great without performance slowdown.. but on the Windows side, online rebuild puts system to a crawl. lol.

I don't know why Windows does not support software RAID for it's boot devices.. something Linux is miles ahead.


I'd recommend staying away (seriously) from the cheap-ass cards for RAID1. I've tested some that was under 15$ on ebay and had huge regrets. Go for something brand name.. There are some that are not that bad that starts around 35$ on ebay..

I like Intel RAIDs controllers for Windows..  at least the monitoring software does it's job right.

I agree that Windows is a better choice for gaming..

[squall1066]

Thanks for the input ppl  

I have decided to go with a mobo controlled raid 1, with fresh install, I have also heard alot about cheapo raid cards, I have decent mobo's so I will try their raid.

I don't know why Windows does not support software RAID for it's boot devices.. something Linux is miles ahead.

I agree that Windows is a better choice for gaming..

Yes, This is because you pay for windows, Meaning if you can copy properly onto another drive, you can give that drive to your mate and they will have free windows, It's all copyright BS.

Windows is just the way it is for gaming, You know, I just noticed Steam games now have a linux version out   Thats worth watching!